Israel sentences Palestinian MP Khalida Jarrar to 15 months in jail

Dec. 7, 2015 11:30 A.M. (Updated: Dec. 8, 2015 1:33 P.M.)

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- An Israeli military court on Sunday sentenced Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar to 15 months in jail, her political party, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said.

The PFLP described the court decision as “tyrannical and part of the ongoing Israeli terrorism against the Palestinian people.”

The left-wing political party said it does not recognize the authority of Israeli courts, which are “another tool of oppression by the Israeli occupation.”

Palestinian prisoner rights group Addameer said that Jarrar was sentenced on the charges of "membership of an illegal organization" and "incitement."

She was also fined 10,000 shekels ($2,582) and given a suspended sentence of 12 months within a five year period.

"Addameer underlines that the information used against Mrs. Jarrar involved information as old as 2009, and that the fact that she was charged years later in 2015 indicates the arrest is a politically motivated one," the group said.

Jarrar, an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was detained on April 2 from her home in Ramallah and initially sentenced to six months' administrative detention, although international pressure later forced the Israeli authorities to bring 12 charges against her, focused on her political activism.

Two witnesses giving testimony at Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar's first witness hearing in August told the court that their confessions were obtained through "torture and ill treatment" by Israeli forces.

Her case has brought outcry across both Palestine and Israel, with Palestinian and Israeli rights groups calling for her release.

Addameer had earlier described her arrest as "vengeful, arbitrary and political, with an aim to punish her for her political opinions and activism for Palestinian human rights," while Human Rights Watch has said that "her case is rife with due process violations."